Spin and Gold Tournaments: Lottery Sit and Goes with a Twist
Even an exciting new area like lottery SNGs gets stale after a while. The old poker sites took their eye off the ball – and now GGPoker has come in and crushed them.
I’m talking about jackpot games which are full of fish. I’m talking about a great choice of both table sizes and stakes… You get the chance of winning money, with insurance and opponents that have never even heard about strategy.
If you have not checked out Spin and Gold tournaments, then – seriously! – you are missing out.
This page assumes you know the concept of lottery / jackpot SNGs. If not then head over to my main Lottery Sit and Go page, then head back here for the details. Please also note that GGPoker is not currently US-friendly. US readers will find a great alternative in ‘Jackpots’ over at ACR Poker.
If you are new to GGPoker, then you get $100 in tokens / buy-ins for a minimum deposit + $300 up for grabs in 'Honeymoon Missions' over your first 30 days. Check out the promotions page over at www.ggpoker.com for details now!
Spin and Gold: Prize Pool Basics
You get a choice of table size, with Spin and Gold. Most lottery Sit and Goes are 3 players. GGPoker gives you a choice of three-max or six-max games.
Each time you play, a wheel spins. This determines the prize pool, which is anything from 2x to 100,000x your buy in. The smallest jackpot is $5,000 (for the 25c games) and the biggest $2 million (for $10 and $100 games).
Highlights include a $1 game with a $100,000 top prize and the $10 six-max, which has a $2,000,000 top prize.
To create these giant prizes, around half of the games you play will have a 2x prize pool. For example, three players stake $5 each, and the prize is $10. This leaves $5 to fund the bigger prizes, which can be $50, $500 or even $5000.
GGPoker have split the bigger prize pools. If you get the biggest 200,000x multiplier in the 6-max games, then everyone gets paid. The same happens for the 3-max games when you get 50x or over. This takes the pressure off. It would be a stressful situation to have $100k winner takes all in a $1 game.
Here is an example of the distribution.
Insurance: A Unique Saver
You can insure each game for an additional buy-in. When I first started with these games, I thought this was about missing out on the top prizes. In fact, it is the opposite.
For example, you play a $1 Spin and Gold tournament. The wheel spins and reveals (another!) $2 prize pool. If you chose to insure, you would get your $1 back. You still get to play, and still keep the $2 prize pool if you win.
While I like the idea, I’m not 100% sure these games are worth ‘grinding’ to the point where something like this really matters. Then again, I’m more of an occasional ‘take a shot’ style Lottery Sit and Go player!
Update: After writing the draft I played a bunch of the 6-max games. There are a couple of ‘regulars’ in them. Those ‘regs’ are not especially good, which only shows that a basic / solid strategy can make them pay.
Spin and Gold: Starting Stacks and Blind Structures
GGPoker use a super-fast structure for the smaller prize pools. As the prize awarded grows, the blind levels extend. This gives you a little more time for skill to show.
At the lowest prize multipliers, everyone starts with 300 chips, with blinds at 10/20. Those blinds increase every 2 minutes. After 12 minutes, you’ll be at 50/100 – which means only 9 big blinds between the entire table.
Once you hit 10x prize pools, you get more chips to start and slower blind increases. With the 6-max games at the jackpot level, each player receives 1000 chips with 8-minute blinds. This makes the games closer to a turbo sit and go than a pure ‘lottery’ game.
These games are busy enough that the prizes are won regularly. You can see the current list of the big winners to the right of the games in the Spin and Gold lobby over at www.ggpoker.com!
.png)
Strategy Tips for Spin and Gold Tournaments
Playing the player matters more than ever when you have shallow stacks, two opponents and a potentially huge prize to fight for.
My experience at the lower buy-ins is that there are plenty of all-in every hand-type players, plenty of passive fish who don’t adjust to the structure and plenty of ‘ABC’ players that are easy to exploit.
GGPoker attract a lot of new players from around the world. As with all poker games, they make the same mistakes you made when you first played.
The amount of ‘min donk bets’ is crazy. People get called, whiff the flop, and have no idea what to do. So, they min-bet into the pre-flop raiser. The amount of players that fold when you reraise here is crazy. It won’t last for ever, and people will eventually do it as a bluff / trap. For now, it is easy to exploit.
There are also a lot of players that will min-raise the button / small blind every time. If you find someone that does this with their entire range, bingo. What now counts is their calling range. If that is tight, you have many spots where anything half-decent is a profitable shove. Not every time mind, even the fishiest new player will adjust.
Finally, the all-in fans. Any two suited, any ace, most kings and anything remotely high-card heavy gets shoved or reshoved over and over. Beating them is easy enough. You need to put them on a basic range and know the equity of you hands against that range. Note that a shove-happy player that suddenly limps or min-raises should set your alarm bells ringing.
If you know someone limps premiums and shoves wide, then you can put them on a specific (and easily exploited) range of hands.
ICM comes into it, though not to the extent that it would in a regular 9-max SNG. Basics like not going to war with the big stack when a someone is about to blind out on the bubble, plus calling with a narrower range than you would shove with will take care of most spots.
GGPoker: Free Spin and Gold Tickets ($100 + $300 Free with a $10 Deposit)
You can try out the Spin and Gold games for free with the $100 in tokens / cash game buy-ins for new players deal. You only need to make a minimum deposit to get this deal. Tokens are spread over your first six days. There is a 100% match to $600 if you prefer.]
New players should also check the ‘Honeymoon’ promo, which is based on simple missions. This gets you up to $300 extra, at no cost. To get the max, you will need to complete a different mission each day. The list includes Spin and Gold games.
Wrapping Up: Spin and Gold Lottery Sit and Go Tournaments
Play just a few Spin and Gold tournaments, and you will see the potential for growing a poker bankroll. Add the shot at winning money to this, and you will wonder why you played anywhere else.
GGPoker Spin and Gold games have shown the legacy sites how things are done. Check them out – and grab your $100 in tickets / buy-ins now over at www.ggpoker.com!
More Popular Poker Pages this Month:
- GGPoker Super Detailed Review